FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional project management system 100 including various project management tools and applications. In the conventional project management system 100, a user may be able to access content stored in one or more datastores 125 using, for example, a web based application 105, a client/server application (e.g., Citrix® or another virtual network computing (VNC) application) 110, a stand alone application 115, or a query-based application 120. The information in the datastores 125 may be stored in various application-specific formats such as word processing document formats, spreadsheet document formats, project management-specific formats (e.g., Microsoft Project™ formats), relational database management system formats, or the like. The various applications may provide an interface that can allow users of the system to perform different project management functions such as updating tasks, deleting tasks, adding new tasks, and the like.
The conventional project management applications permit users to perform project management functions by accessing application-specific documents in the datastore 125. These documents contain application-specific language that enables the application to present information in the document to the user via the application's interface. In other words, in conventional content management systems, a user must have a device equipped with a specific project management application or must otherwise directly access a specific project management application. Furthermore, if a user is to be able to use more than one application for project management, the datastore 125 must maintain and synchronize project management related data for each application that a user may use.
Conventional project management systems fail to provide a universal or ubiquitous method of identifying, retrieving, and acting on the content in a datastore and do not allow a user to seamlessly switch from one mode of communication to another mode of communication when communicating with the project management system.